UNC Charlotte at Dawn

Captured these pictures while out on an early bike ride!

Unfortunately they're quite blurry, my dying camera did not work too well with the morning light. The pictures show the path leading from the Intramural Fields to the Woodward Hall.

Oh the wonders I could do if I had a real camera :)

Scaling New Heights

I have always wondered, when I see a mountain, how does one human manage to scale the vast outcrop of rock that stands before him. Not only do you have to conquer the actual, physical mountain, but your fear, exhaustion and perseverance itself are enemies to your task. So when a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join him at an indoor rock wall to develop some climbing skills, I reluctantly (I have a mild fear of heights) agreed so that I could further explore this sport.

Our mountain was stored inside a concrete warehouse in the Charlotte area, in a facility called Inner Peaks (http://www.innerpeaks.com/). On a bright sunny Wednesday, (not that the weather really mattered since it was indoors), I headed off to the rock wall to test my strength against nature's buildings. The staff at Inner Peaks are very friendly and when it's your first time, they take you through a video of the how-to's of climbing and then a hands-on lesson on climbing and belaying. I was a little confused as to why someone would name the belaying tool a "Gri-gri", but to each his own I guess.

Climbing is a lot more complicated than I anticipated. A few friends had told me that it's more lower body than upper and so I sought to use less pulling power and more leg muscles but there's a lot more to that. There are various holds and techniques, a crimp hold vs. an open hold and different ways to position yourself to avoid straining specific muscles. It's all very fascinating. The rock walls are also arranged in varying levels of difficulty - one wall can be either an easy, medium or difficult wall based on the colored path that you follow.

I've only been there twice but it's been a ton of fun. There's plenty of walls left for me to conquer so I'll definitely be heading back there soon.

Mallard Creek Greenway

Since I don't believe in taking summer classes, and since I barely work 5 hours a day at my job, I needed to find something that would help me kill time and get a work out in. And so it happened that I discovered a bike trail right in my neighborhood as I was searching for a shortcut to my favorite restaurant.

The Mallard Creek and Clark's Creek Greenway, starting at the Kirk Farm soccer fields, is a paved/graveled/dirt path that sprawls through lush, green fields and under roads and interstate for over 7 miles.  The path is a recreational area to a myriad of people ranging from bikers, to joggers, to people rollerblading or just walking their dogs. It's been over a month since I discovered this trail and I bike there often now and the weather has always been gorgeous. But the day I decide to take my camera out there so I could share this serene part of Charlotte on the web, it starts pouring like it was the end of the Earth.

Nonetheless, the bike ride was as enjoyable as always, in fact more so I would say. The usual neatly paved path, surrounded by the quiet lull of nature had given way to a torrential downpour of mud, water and unfortunately frogs. When our daily lives are filled with the constant hum of machines and the buzz of daily life, it is a bliss to feel the wind on your skin and the raindrops splashing around you as you pedal away. It's funny to think about how in the midst of a city entirely made of concrete and asphalt, there's a patch of nature tucked away behind the scenes, waiting for those eager to enjoy its serenity.

My only qualms were the frogs that came out to enjoy the rain as well. Having a phobia of frogs does not help when you're riding through a minefield of them just sitting around. Regardless, it was a great trip that got a friend and me covered in mud, inspired a vivid metaphor (http://hannahgrover.blogspot.com/) and ended up in exhaustion, fun and lots of laughter.

Berlin Airlift at UNC Charlotte

I go to school at the University of North Carolina here in Charlotte and I think we have a pretty awesome library. I work at the library security office and today we hosted an event that I had no idea about even though it was publicized for about 4 months.

The Berlin Airlift Exhibit, as it was called,  is a traveling exhibit that is displayed in many universities across the country and for the South East region of the United States, UNC Charlotte was picked to host the event. Yay for us :). I had a vague idea of what it was about since over the past week the library had accumulated a number of placards, notices and signs about the event and its

 history, but since I did not know the fine details I tried to pay attention (and take pictures for this blog) all night long. Mind you the photos are far below the level I usually like but I had to be sneaky since I wasn't allowed to (only library marketing staff can take pictures in there apparently).

To summarize the importance of the event: In post WWII, Germany was divided up by the Allied powers and occupied. West Germany was occupied by the British, French and the Americans, while East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. Within East Germany, the city of Berlin itself was under multinational occupation. During the Cold War crisis however, the Soviet Union blocked all entry to Berlin leaving the areas under control by USA, France and Britain in desperate need of food and other aid. The Soviet Union's did this in the hope that the other foreign powers would hand over Berlin to them because they were unable to provide people with necessities, thereby handing over full control of Berlin. 

In response however, the Western Allies formed the Berlin Airlift, an airlift that saw 200,000 flights carry over 13,000 tons of food daily to the people of Berlin for over a year. The mission was a success and humiliated the Soviet Union's attempt to gain Berlin. Since then, the Western Allies along with Germany, celebrate the Berlin Airlift and the members of the various Air forces that helped make such a humanitarian effort possible. 

At the Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte, Kurt Waldthausen, the German honorary consul, brought the German and American community in Charlotte together, to congratulate and commemorate the veterans in the area that helped with the Berlin Airlift. Kurt Waldthausen also gifted UNC Charlotte a Berlin Bear dressed as the Statue of Liberty which was aptly named "Lib-Bear-ty" (which I think also has a German meaning), and a shirt signed by US Air Force pilot Colonel Gail Halvorsen, the "Candy Bomber". Andrei Cherny, a former White House speech writer, Senior Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and author of the book The Candy Bombers, spoke about the importance of the Airlift, the lasting friendships and ties that it has created and the hopes it inspired in a defeated nation. Awards were then handed out to the veterans present who showed their appreciation with tears and warm smiles. To conclude the event, one of the veterans narrated a colorful tale of his time with the Airlift effort and how it changed him and his view of war. Finally there was a reception with a sumptuous German dinner full of Würste (sausages), sauerkraut, German beer, delectable meats, cheeses and much much more.  

While I wasn't involved in the event as much as 99% of the people there ( I'm neither American nor German so I don't share any of this history) it felt good to be a part of it and I look forward to getting involved with the Charlotte community more. Incidentally, the honorary consul of Germany, Kurt Waldthausen, said he'd been to Sri Lanka every year for 12 years back in the 80s. Felt a connection there haha.

Well that's it for my first proper blog post! Don't mind the messy layout or any grammatical errors. Until next time.

Transition

While the intention of starting this blog was to transcribe my vivid thought processes onto the web, I have had a change of mind. Whenever I am perusing blogs online, it's mainly blogs filled with a plethora of colorful images that catch my interest; I find that you can learn much more through both pictures and words than just words alone (in the case of blogs. I liked the version of Harry Potter in my head more than the movie). So I'm happily going to change this blog to a semi photo blog.

Being a travel enthusiast, I always think about going to different places and blogging my adventures to the world. The image of such a blog in my mind is always filled with amazing photographs of breathtaking scenery and delightful little places in the corners of remote towns. I realized just recently however, that I don't have just to travel to other countries to explore the world. Few people actually take time to be a part of the city that they live in and until now I have been in that same boat. I rarely explored my birth country Sri Lanka even though I travelled there every year. Other than the everyday spots I didn't bother to venture into the depths of Dubai, a city I spent 17 years of my life in and now even though I have been living in Charlotte for 3 years I can't really say I've seen much (this is partly due to the fact that I don't have a car!). With only a month to go before I head out to Lyon, France for a year, I have decided to do as much as I can in Charlotte and satisfy my guilty conscience.

So right after this post is my first blog on the city I live in :)